Because I knew my heart would break to watch a cardboard thing being beaten to a pulp by young thugs wielding baseball bats, that's why.

Oh, the disrespect!

But this party needed a cardboard pinata because - shockingly - there wasn't any other cardboard thing there! There was PVC and wood and vinyl and webbing and fabric and foam and plastic cable ties and cookie dough, even. But no cardboard! Absolutely mortifying.

So cardboard pinata it was.

It was just two huge circles with a gusset of sorts, glued around it. We left a hole at the top for candy-filling

and punched holes on either side of that gap for stringing up.

And then the kids painted it rainbow colors, with one side in reverse color order of the other:

Then we filled it with candy.

And strung it up.

And the kids bashed it to death.

But not before it outperformed all its predecessors in Every. Single. Way. So I grimaced throughout the entire torture session and I might even have closed my eyes and shuddered.

But it was truly magnificent: each hit produced just a bit of candy. Not an avalanche. Couldn't have been more perfect. It lasted long enough for 14 of the 15 guests to bash it once and release candy (the 15th guest put it out of its misery). And -for once- it took longer to destroy than it took to make. I call that Very Worth It. So from now on, unless there is a special need for a spherical/ovoidal one, I will be making all my pinatas from cardboard. It should've been a no-brainer, but my heart got in the way. I know better now. Cardboard is supreme. All hail cardboard.

5 comments:

You are so funny, LiEr! Love the tutorials - magnificent, as always. One pinata suggestion that I read about (but never tried, my littles are still too young) is to mix a few rolls of quarters (opened up, that is) in with the candy to heighten the thrill of the bludgeoning.

Funny, I've always considered the relative durability of well-constructed cardboard pinatas to be a disadvantage -- we WANT an avalanche after several hits! In fact, when I've bought party-store pinatas and not converted them to pull-string, I generally prime them by making some razor cuts in inconspicuous places, so that they'll break more easily. Otherwise, it always seems that a parent ends up ripping the darn thing apart and dumping the contents out by hand, after the kids tire of swinging at it.

Hello and Welcome!

I am a gratefully unemployed mom of three girls, all of whom are growing up much too soon! I like piles of warm, fresh laundry, the smell of salt air near the beach where I used to live, making lists, anything round (like heads) and the quiet evenings sitting with the man of the house after the kids are in bed.

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You are welcome to link to this blog and to any post on this blog and use ONE or TWO photos for that purpose. Do not use photos of my children. You are welcome to pin images from my blog, if those photos do not have my children's faces in them. Please contact me if you want to use the text on, or more photos from, this blog. Do not post my tutorials on your sites. Do not translate tutorials from this blog into other languages on your site. The ideas and instructions in the tutorials are free - but please use them to only make stuff for yourself or for gifts and not to sell. Ta! For more information, this and this might be helpful.